The challenge fee you posted for TPT is not correct. You need to adjust again. Also with the latest promo code at TPT NOFEE40 you get your activation fee for ZERO. So you need to input a ZERO too here and not $130 fee, because you get it waived.
Do no think so, the reviews do not lie that much. There are far less complaints than at Apex. TPT is actually the best offer you can get. But of course Topstep is the oldest futures prop and maybe the most stable, so I understand your choice. But maybe you might a look at TPT in the future too. I just wanna be as objective as I can here.
No FTMO and 5ers in the table? Those are the two oldest and best CFD firms out there. Edit: Oh I see your table is "Broker backed" prop firms. That's why they didn't show up. Though I would still say FTMO and 5ers are just as trustworthy as those.
I think 3 of the major reasons to pick Topstep over TPT are: 1: No daily loss limit in TopstepX, other platforms still do have a daily loss limit I believe, but if you hit it you don't lose the account, unlike at TPT. 2: End of day trailing draw down, TPT has EOD trailing in the challenge, but intraday trailing draw down once funded, which for me is a big turn off. 3: No trading around certain news releases once funded with TPT, no positions allowed 1 minute before and until 1 minute after the release. Nothing like this at Topstep. The only reason to pick TPT over Topstep (in my opinion at least) is they have no restrictions on payouts, however personally the Topstep payout rule isn't an issue for me.
TakeProfitTrader CEO in an interview mentioned that if their firm changed their drawdown in funded accounts to be EOD, the math won't allow them to provide payouts on Day 1 (which is their unique selling point). I think the numbers bear that out. Just look at prop firms who provide evals for both intraday trailing and EOD trailing. EliteTraderFunding sells a $50k eval for intraday trailing for only $165 while their EOD trailing is $295 because of how much an advantage that gives the trader. Know that, I'm actually happy TakeProfitTrader doesn't have EOD trailing with their payouts on Day 1. It means they will actually have the capital to pay out winning traders and their business model is sustainable.
The pricing to value is not good from a math point. I would not buy from nearly all props. E8 pricing is almost same like FTMO they are not cheaper. Now let me calculate that I have no advantage trading on FTMO than on personal broker account. The 200k at FTMO cost €1080, because of 15% profit targets cumulated to 10% max. Drawdown, it is valued e^(1.5)=2.71^(1.5)=4, sp 1080=4320 Euro, which is around 4720 US Dollar. If you then aim for 10% profit on funded account status at FTMO the value is compounded to e^1*4720=2.71*4720=12800 US Dollar, and I get from FTMO as payout on 10% profits 16000 US Dollar (without the refund here, as this is one time off and not repeated refund on every payout). So I can compare 12800 from personal compounding to 16000 from FTMO as payout. That is before taxes in Germany. Now since self employed is taxed with up to 42% and personal only with 26% there is disadvantage trading prop firms. Also since FTMO is based on EU ground you also need to pay 19% sales tax. So what do I have after taxes in comparison ? From those 12800 personal profit I have ca. 9470 versus on FTMO i have after taxes 7520. So it would be stupid to trade on FTMO since I have more profits after taxes just trading on my personal broker account. It is similar to E8, but there is no EU sales tax here since they are US based, but still there is no value! Also if someone is thinking about the TopStep or TakeProfitTrader offer, I can say from a mathematical view, it does not make sense even before taxes to join any of those challenges as they are harder to master than what you have as value on compounding yourself on your personal broker account. All rules included here in the comparison. Trailing makes it much harder to provide any value from a trader perspective to choose a prop firm than just focusing on the personal broker account. Actually there are some offers which provides value from a math point. This is instant models like Tradeify (and I exclude FastTrackTrading here because of payout problems) and also Quant Tekel. So for me as I do not trade the futures and mostly swing trading with holding overnights over several days, I have only Quant Tekel as option here. And this is valid only with the current deep discounts they offer on their promo codes. If there was no discount or whatsoever, there would be no prop firm left for that.